Small Gods

by Terry Pratchett

Series:

Discworld #13

Publisher:

Harper

Copyright:

February 1994

Printing:

March 2008

ISBN:

0-06-109217-7

Format:

Mass market

Pages:

357

Small Gods is the thirteenth Discworld novel, but it features new
characters and is unrelated to any of the previous books. Some reading
order guides show it as following Pyramids in an "ancient civilizations" track, but its only
relationship with that book is some minor thematic similarities. You
could start here with Discworld if you wanted to.

Brutha is a novice in the hierarchy of the church of the Great God Om, and
his elders are convinced he'll probably die a novice. He's just not
particularly bright, you see. But he is very obedient, and he doesn't mind
doing hard work, and there's nothing exactly wrong with him, except that
he looks at people with startling intensity when they're talking to him.
Almost as if he's listening.

All that seems about to change, however, when the Great God Om himself
approaches Brutha and starts talking to him. Not that Brutha is at all
convinced at first that this is happening, particularly given that Om
appears in the form of a small, battered, one-eyed tortoise who was
dropped into the church garden by an eagle attempting to break his shell.

Small Gods is, as you might have guessed, a parody of religion, at
least large, organized religion with fixed hierarchies, organizations
called the Quisition that like to torture people, and terrifyingly devout
deacons who are certain of themselves in ways that no human ever should
be. It's also an interesting bit of Discworld metaphysics: gods gain
power from worship (a very old idea in fantasy), and when they don't get
enough worship, they end up much diminished and even adrift in the desert.
Or trapped in the form of a small tortoise. One might wonder how Om ended
up in his present condition given the vast and extremely authoritarian
church devoted to his worship, but that's the heart of Pratchett's rather
pointed parody: large religious organizations end up being about
themselves, rather than about the god they supposedly worship, to such an
extent that they don't provide any worship at all.

Brutha is not thinking of things like this. Once he's finally convinced
that Om is who he claims to be, he provides worship and belief of a very
practical but wholehearted and unshakable sort, just as he does
everything else in life. That makes him the eighth prophet of Om as
prophecy foretold, but it's far from clear how that will be of any
practical use. Or how Om will come back into power. And meanwhile,
Brutha has come to the attention of Vorbis, the head of the Exquisitors,
who does not know about the tortoise (and wouldn't believe if he did), but
who has a use for Brutha's other talent: his eidetic memory.

In typical Pratchett fashion, the story expands to include a variety of
other memorable characters from the neighboring city of Ephebe, a country
full of gods and philosophers. Vorbis's aims here are unclear at the
start of the book, but Vorbis being who he is, they can't be good. Brutha
is drawn along in his wake. Meanwhile, Om is constantly watching for an
opportunity to regain his lost power and worshipful following, and also to
avoid being eaten.

Despite the humorous components, Small Gods is rather serious about
religion and about its villain. It's also a touch repetitive; Om's lack
of power and constant fretting about it, Brutha's earnest but naive
loyalty, and Vorbis's malevolent determination are repeatedly stressed and
get a little old. Some bits in Ephebe are quite fun, but the action is a
bit disjointed, partly because the protagonist is rarely the motive force
in the plot. There are also some extended scenes of trudging through the
desert that I thought dragged a bit. But Pratchett hits some powerful
notes in his critique of religion, and there are a few bits with Death at
the end of the book that I thought were among the better pieces of
Discworld philosophy. And when Brutha gets a chance to use his one talent
of memory, I greatly enjoyed the resulting scenes. He hits just the right
combination of modesty, capability, and earnestness.

I know a lot of Pratchett readers really like Small Gods. I'm not
one of those; I thought it was about average for the Discworld series (at
least among the books I've read so far). But average for Discworld is
still pretty good, and its new setting makes it a plausible place to start
(or to take a break from the other Discworld plot threads).

Followed, in publication order, by Lords and Ladies. I don't
believe it has a direct plot sequel.